Dr Catherine
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Girl
4-7 years

My child is 6 and still a frequent bed wetter. Even though we have tried alarms and drynites pants it does not seem to be getting better. Please help!

Please be reassured it is perfectly normal for your son to still be wetting the bed at night with many children continuing to do so up until school age. The time between achieving daytime continence and nighttime control is different for every child. While some achieve this in a matter of weeks, others take months or years. One of the best indicators that your son is moving toward achieving nighttime continence is an increase in the number of mornings he wakes up dry. There are a number of reasons why children continue to wet at night. Some do so because their body produces larger than normal amounts of urine overnight and their bladder is unable to store it until morning. This usually continues until the amount of urine produced decreases or children learn to wake-up in response to a full bladder. Others do so because they are unable to wake in response to the signals that their bladder sends to their brain telling them to wake-up and go to the toilet. The best way to encourage healthy bladder habits is to encourage your son to drink water regularly throughout the day, about 1 to 1.5 litres is encouraged for children his age. Sometimes young children wet the bed out of fear; with fear of the dark being one of the most common fears of young children. It is probably worth checking if this is an issue, with a simple night light possibly making the difference. Regards, Dr Cathrine